Abstract
The elastic properties of rod−coil diblock copolymer poly(styrene-d8)-b-poly(γ-benzyl l-glutamate) (PSd-b-PBLG) rod−coil diblock copolymer solutions were investigated using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). PBLG is known to undergo a transition from a rodlike α-helical secondary structure to a random coil conformation under specific solvent conditions: the PBLG is (i) rodlike in dioxane and (ii) random coil in dioxane/trifluoroacetic acid (80/20). For the PSd-b-PBLG diblock copolymer, this conformational transition results in a topological change from a rod−coil to a coil−coil type structure. SANS results indeed show the presence of the expected scattering peakscopolymer signaturefor both conformational topologies. The position and the height of these scattering peaks are found in good agreement with a recent theoretical model that describes the conformational change in rod−coil diblock copolymer solutions. Circular dichroism experiments confirmed the change in secondary structure in the peptide block that accompanies the topological transition observed by SANS.
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